Which to use
“dear” is an adjective and “der” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,457
- “dear” frequency rank
- #3,909
- “der” frequency rank
- 39366
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dear | der |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cher, chère. | Dernier, dernière ou dernière fois. |
Where the eye mixes dear and der
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses dear with der
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dear is \ˈdɪɹ\ while der is \dɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39366, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dear is recorded at frequency rank #35,457, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈdɪɹ\. der is at rank #3,909, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɛʁ\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 39366, this pair ranks #248,533 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dear vs der
Shared letters: der. Private to "dear": a. Private to "der": -.
"dear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "der" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dear ← ddear · dearr · dera · edar
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dear" and "der" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "dear" or "der" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "dear" and "der" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "dear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "der" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #248,533 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dear" and "der" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dear vs dray". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #248,533 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.